WHO Recommended List

A. Central Junctions (Internet Gateways)

1. Your ISP and/or Browser (AOL, IE, Netscape Com.), 'Favorites,' 'Bookmarks,' etc.

2. Reference Desk- www.refdesk.com clock, calendar, Merriam-Webster's Dictionary, reference tools, research sites (linked from index), etc.

3. Educational Links- www.rsts.net/home/edulinks/ref.html library and research links, online dictionary and encyclopedia links, etc.

4. Library Spot- www.libraryspot.com a comprehensive reference site with links for everything from Acronymns to Zip Codes and multimedia links for online encyclopedias and dictionaries (more than "Ref. Desk" above), includings a free, abbreviated version of the 29-volume Funk & Wagnall's dictionary (paid subscription for full access)

5. Bess Internet Retriever- www.bess.net a family-friendly central site with kids' graphics and links to the Searchopolis filtered search engine as well as other safe sites for school resources and reference

1. Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary- www.m-w.com

2. American Heritage Dictionary- www.bartleby.com 3rd ed. with 350,000 entries; largest, newest, free online

3. Your Dictionary- www.yourdictionary.com a huge index with links to over 100 multi-lingual and specialty English online dictionaries

4. Oxford English Dictionary- http://oed.com the largest and most authoritative English dictionary with 640,000 words and phrases, currently embarked on a ten-year project to add 600,000 more (Cost- $550/year; $ 795/institutions)

1. Encyclopedia.com- www.encyclopedia.com 14,000 articles from The Concise Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 3rd ed.

2. Britannica.com- www.britannica.com complete, updated, "oldest and largest general reference in the English languagem," including selected articles from over 70 magazines; with a database of "over 100 million web pages"

3. Columbia Encyclopedia- www.bartleby.com/65 accessible only through Bartleby.com, an Internet publisher with active advertising; "largest one-volume gen. encyclopedia" with over 50,000 searchable articles (a little tricky with some links; eg. "Homer" never came up for me, although the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey" did)

4. Encyclopedia Electronica- www.etronica.com brief, "micro-reference" with categories in history, literature, science, technology, etc.

5. Nupedia- www.nupedia.com a current project developing a free, "open content" encyclopedia written by volunteer scholars from around the world

6. Perseus Project- www.perseus.tufts.edu a very large and beautiful interactive site specializing in the ancient and classical periods, created and maintained since 1987 by Tufts U. staff in Somerville, MA.

7. Encarta Encyclopedia- http://encarta.msn.com a beautiful, interactive, multimedia pay-for-service tool which offers a free abbreviated version with 16,000 articles, a dictionary and world atlas in a free-trial offer; the deluxe version boasts 42,000 articles (Cost- $ 64.95)

1. Electric Library- www.elibrary.com appears to contain mostly magazine articles; has a free 30-day trial offer; (Cost- $ 9.95/month; $ 59.95/year)

2. Encyclopedia Smithsonian- www.si.edu/resource a wide and eclectic assortment of topics with articles, information, and interactive edu. pages for kids (e.g. in astronomy and chemistry)

3. Library of Congress- www.loc.gov an online bibliographical record of 12 million books, sound recordings, and other artifactsa and materials

4. Biographical Dictionary- www.s9.com/biography very brief entries for use in English, Social Studies, History, etc.

5. Researchpaper.com- www.researchpaper.com a service of the Infonautics Corp. in partnership with Macmillan Pub. (adapting Kathryn Lamm's 10,000 Ideas for Term Papers, Projects, Reports & Speechs, 1995) and with the Online Writing Lab of Purdue U.; a very helpful resource, with a huge index of help topics which cover everything, beginning with "Getting Ideas" and "Developing an Outline."

6. Public Broadcasting Service- www.pbs.org a very large collection of material from PBS TV documentaries such as "The Greeks, Crucible of Civilization," with biographies, essays, maps, illustrations, pictures, etc.

7. Ancient Greece- www.ancientgreece.com a commercial site with advertising; includes articles, illustrations, timelines, etc. on Greek art, architecture, history, geography, mythology, Olympic Games, Wars, etc.

8. Encyclopedia Mythica- www.pantheon.org a privately created, free, non-commercial, volunteer project which contains over 5700 definitions and brief articles

9. Mr. William Shakespeare & the Internet- http://daphne.palomar.edu/Shakespeare a wonderful learning site which includes an index of other Shakespeare sites as well as unique resources (timeline, genealogy, articles, literary criticism, canon, biographical quiz, the Lamb's Tales, etc.)

10. Classics & Mediterranean Archaelogy- http://rome.classics.lsa.umich.edu/welcome.html undoubtedly the most comprehensive listing of all things ancient and classical on the internet, including articles, essays, art images, photos, etc. by Sebastian Heath and the Dept. of Classical Studies at the U. of Michigan; the index alone runs for 18 pages (copy available)

11. Martindale's Reference Desk- http://www.martindalecenter.com/ another huge site, this one managed by James G. Martindale at U.C. (Irvine), including 25,000 linked sites with many resources in math and science, science tables, online calculators, articles, courses, scientific dictionaries, etc. in everything from astronomy to mathematics

12. Math Forum- http://forum.swarthmore.edu a comprehensive online math help site for all student levels, from K-Graduate School, begun by a math prof. at Swarthmore College in PA. in 1994, and now including a volunteer help staff of several hundred teachers from around the country

13. Shuv Institute- www.shuv.org a non-profit educational org. based in Seattle which studies cultural trends and issues from a Christian perspective, with an online, annotated bibliography of literature dealing with "Church and Culture in a Postmodern World;" includes everything from overviews of Artistotle's Ethics and Augustine's City of God to Max Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

1. Internet Public Library- www.ipl.org a very large reference site which claims to have links to over 12,000 texts online as well as many other resources, e.g. a "Ready Reference Collection" with hundreds of articles on topics which are indexed by category, ranging from Arts & Humanities to Science and Technology; See: Online Texts Reference" (Copy available)

2. The Classics Page- http://patriot.net/~lillard/cp an impressive site hosted by the Ad Fontes Academy, a classical Christian school in Fairfax, VA., with numerous classical links and online Latin texts by authors ranging from Julius Caesar to Tacitus

3. The American Colonist's Library- http://personal.pitnet.net/primarysources an extensive catalog of online texts which pertain to early American history, developed and maintained by Richard Gardiner, a history teacher in Hartland, WI; the index alone runs for 23 pages, and ranges from the "Ordinance of William the Coinquerer," in the 11th century, to Patrick Henry's "Give Me Liberty of Give Me Death" speech in 1775.

1. Local Library Systems- e.g. King County Library System- http://webpac.kcls.org cardholders can locate and place holds on the entire collection of books from home

2. Educators' Exchange- www.edexbooks.com this site includes new and used books and other homeschool teaching materials to buy, sell, or trade: "1000's of popular homeschool titles in stock"

4. Amazon.com- www.amazon.com (search features include by author, title, subject, ISBN, reader age, publication date, etc.) (cf. Oxford Tutorials, etc.)